Honcker Exits Beta as Rodo, Brings Transparency to the Auto Industry with Enhanced Car Leasing Marketplace

The Venture-Backed Startup Is Releasing a New Pricing Engine to Power Its Consumer and Business-Facing Platforms

On-demand auto leasing startup Rodo, previously known as Honcker, is exiting beta with a major update to its core product, bringing unprecedented transparency and efficiency to the consumer-dealer relationship. Rodo is available today for both iOS and Android, and online at Rodo.com.

The venture-backed startup provides a three-step, digital leasing process for 150,000+ vehicles from every major manufacturer, directly through its mobile app and website. Rodo calculates transparent, personalized pricing for each customer, democratizing the leasing process in a way that is more efficient for both sides of the marketplace. Rodo shoppers finalize their lease and arrange for free home delivery, all without ever visiting a dealership.

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Today, Rodo is releasing its new Rebates, Incentives, Coupons Engine (RICE), which uses natural language processing and machine learning to find and extract all relevant discounts based on the individual shopper, applying them automatically to the monthly payment. The results are clear lease terms that require no further negotiation from either the dealer or consumer.

Given its scope and scalability, Rodo’s new technology platform has the potential to become the industry standard for all digital lease and finance transactions. To reflect this evolution of the brand and technology, and its ongoing commitment to positive change in the auto industry, Rodo partnered with Red Antler, the country’s leading brand agency, to craft its new identity.

“The Honcker brand was about bringing the arduous auto leasing process into the 21st century. Now, with the core components in place, we can look towards improving everything around it,” said Nathan Hecht, CEO and Founder of Rodo. “The re-brand to Rodo reflects our commitment to consumers: to elevate the car leasing experience to one that is worthy of the new car itself. Rodo is about a fast, convenient, and transparent path to a new vehicle, all while ensuring the best possible price. This is a giant leap forward for the auto industry to finally bring the transaction online.”

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As brick-and-mortar dealerships face increasing competition from e-commerce, Rodo is being tapped to level the playing field. The platform functions as an online extension of the dealer’s showroom, generating leases on their behalf and on their terms. This strategy is catching on — as of July 2019, Rodo has achieved more than 500-percent growth in dealer partnerships year-over-year, with now more than 1,000 dealerships on the platform in 15 markets, generating thousands of leases for its partners nationwide.

“Local dealers are a vital part of our platform. We’re focused on making it easier for dealers to grow their own sales while lowering their overhead. These partnerships are also the reason that all of the vehicles on Rodo are actually available in real-time at the b*********,” said Hecht. “That’s not always the case in this industry, where many players are simply generating leads on vehicles that may or may not be on the lot and pricing remains ambiguous.”

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